Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 are now out in the Land of the Rising Sun. To celebrate, we’ve caught three different staffers to talk about their experiences with the core Pokémon games, from past to present. Some Nintendo fans have always stuck by the series, others have left it behind (perhaps permanently), but when you’re talking about something as prolific as Pokémon, you can be sure that new players are still being born every day. Luckily, Joseph Nelson, Noah Ward, and Michael Contino all fall neatly into these three categories as our resident Pokémaniac, former Pokémaniac, and Pokémon novice respectively. Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Unova may all hold different adventures, but when the basic premise of catching Pokémon remains the same, how do their experiences compare?
Read on, and see whether your adventures strike any chords with ours.
Me i started with the first and second gen games but technical limitations kept me from doing much outside completeing the game. then came the 4th gen. with wifi i was able to enjoy the whole pokemon experince and platnum gave me great new trading options. with 5th gen the pokemon game was the best of all but i was unable to get into the greater pokemon comunity hopefuly i can find a group with black and white 2
I find myself in an odd position on the series – on one hand, I love all generations across all platforms, I’m neutral, though my favorite is, by far, Sapphire/Ruby/Emerald.
Diamond and Pearl represent a crossing-over, round, boring generation. Yes, it looks better, yes, it is advanced, yes, I am neutral, but Diamond and Pearl have more new Pokemon that evolve from previous Pokemon and one-part-of-a-line Pokemon then any actual new evolution lines.
Red, Blue, and Yellow – the American releases of Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow – leave me in a conundrum, due to conditioning by modern technology.
The Pokemon system back then was simpler with less Pokemon. At the same time, somehow, due to lack of color and lack of size of screen, performing – using the system is infinitely harder and more complex. It is easy in Black to use the system, yet I find it difficult to use it in Red.
It’s a consequence of modern times.
As a mostly-neutral Pokemon fan (I do recognize the existance of Generation III/IV/V, yet am also a fan of I/II) I look forward to the next generation of Pokemon.
Though, as a final note, I began using the Pokemon series with Gold. It introduced me to Pokemon. Before Pokemon, I wasn’t in to video games at all. Now, I wonder how I made it by without them for nearly five/seven/eight years. Pokemon Gold will always have a soft spot in my heart – I still have the original cartridge of it, though the save file is not the one from all those years ago.
Basically, I can’t side with any fan – some only say there’s 251, while others say they hate Red and Gold.
I’ve always recognized each generation by what I call “the main game” of the “dominating color.”
In Generation I, Red is the ‘main game.’
In Generation II, Gold is the ‘main game.’
In Generation III, Sapphire and Emerald are the ‘main game/s.’ I didn’t like FireRed and LeafGreen.
In Generation IV, Diamond/HeartGold is the ‘main game.’ I still don’t like it, though.
In Generation V, Black/Black 2 are the ‘main games.’
Despite my personal preferences, it is impossible to deny every Pokemon game is fun.